Perspective
Communicative ecology researchers speak in terms of “mapping” the ecology. This term may be misleading as it could appear to indicate the creation of cartographic renderings of the communicative ecology as it relates to its locality. Mapping the ecology, in the main, refers to drawing conceptual maps and creating or collecting oral or written descriptions of the phenomena that constitute the communicative ecology.
There are two primary perspectives taken to communicative ecology research that are loosely correlative with the emic and etic positions taken in classic ethnographic studies. A researcher can work from the outside of the ecology looking in with the aim of creating a holistic overview. Alternatively, they can position themselves within the communicative ecology with the aim of looking at it from the participants’ points of view. The external view is useful if a comparison between local systems is desired. A centric view is better suited to understanding how people construct and make sense of their communicative ecology.
The choice of perspective may enhance or limit the utility of the data. For example, a birds-eye view may fail to capture significant individual differences in the experience of a communicative ecology, such as those brought about by differing wealth or literacy levels. Ideally, communicative ecology research should use a variety of perspectives in order to obtain a more complete representation and deeper understanding.
Read more about this topic: Communicative Ecology
Famous quotes containing the word perspective:
“Egoism is the law of perspective as it applies to feelings, according to which what is closest to us appears to be large and weighty, while size and weight decrease with our distance from things.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“No one thinks anything silly is suitable when they are an adolescent. Such an enormous share of their own behavior is silly that they lose all proper perspective on silliness, like a baker who is nauseated by the sight of his own eclairs. This provides another good argument for the emerging theory that the best use of cryogenics is to freeze all human beings when they are between the ages of twelve and nineteen.”
—Anna Quindlen (20th century)
“All things being equal, I would choose a woman over a man in order to even the balance of power, to insinuate a different perspective into the process, to give young women something to shoot for and someone to look up to. But all things are rarely equal.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)